By John Shinn
The relationship goes back further than one season as head coach and secondary coach in 2004. It goes back longer than being opposing coaches in the Big 12 Conference in 2003. The only thing deeper than the roots between Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops and Nebraska coach Bo Pelini is the historic rivalry between the Sooners and Huskers.
The coaches’ connection goes back nearly four decades. Back to the 1970s, on the south side of Youngstown, Ohio, and two large families that have had an indelible impact on college football over the last decade.
Those roots were woven together at Youngstown’s Cardinal Mooney High School. Stoops was one of six children who made their way through the school. Pelini was the last of eight.
“We were all intertwined in school. We all knew each other,” Stoops said.
Stoops graduated from high school with Pelini’s older brother Vince. During his first season as a defensive assistant at Kansas State, Pelini’s older brother Carl, now Nebraska’s defensive coordinator, lived with Stoops and his wife Carol, while serving as a graduate assistant.
Stoops’ younger brother Mark and Bo Pelini were high school classmates.
Then there was the 2004 season when Bo Pelini served as OU’s defensive backs coach.
What’s unusual is finding a time when members of the Stoops and Pelini family have been pitted against one another, but one of those times is due to take place at 7 p.m. Saturday when No. 4 OU plays host to Nebraska at Owen Field.
Coaching against one another won’t be a big deal.
“It’s not going to change our relationship. It’s not going to change how I approach it,” Pelini said. “I’m sure it’s not going to change how he approaches it. That is pretty irrelevant once you line up. Number one, we’re not playing. That doesn’t change how you do your job.”
Playing against one another might be different, just as it was on the basketball court at St. Patrick’s Church in Youngstown.
“That was a lot more fierce than what we’ll deal with on Saturday,” Pelini said.
Instead, what you’ll get is a lot more respect in a rivalry that has always been characterized by the outpouring of respect both sides have always shown over the years.
Pelini speaks of Stoops in the terms of a role model.
“I learned a lot from him. Obviously, he’s had tremendous success. Right now, I’m at a (different) point in my career. I believe Bob has been there about 10 years, and I don’t know if I’ve been here 10 months, so it’s a little bit different,” Pelini said. “When he took over the Oklahoma program, it was very similar to the situation when I took over. I don’t know if it was exactly (the same). One thing I do know, once the season is over, I will probably visit with him about moving forward and the things that he needed to do to move forward, as I will with a lot of the guys I’ve coached with.
“You learn from people. That is one thing I understand in this profession.”
Twenty-five years ago, no one could have guessed that two coaches from the same eastern Ohio town, even the same high school, would be in charge of two of the Big 12’s most historic football programs. Anyone hoping for animosity is going have to look elsewhere. When it comes to Stoops and Pelini, there’s too much history to disrupt the water.
“It is kind of ironic, two guys from the same town in Ohio, coaching Oklahoma and Nebraska,” Stoops said. “But it is exciting and we both pull for each other.”
John Shinn
366-3536
jshinn@normantranscript.com
